Victoria's police union says a combination of stress and sickness is causing severe workforce shortages in a regional Victorian police district.
Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt recently visited the Wodonga police service area after hearing of an "extraordinary situation" where more than 50 officers were on leave.
"Some of it was ill health and injury. Some of it was parental leave," he said.
The union raised the alarm to Victoria Police, who temporarily deployed officers to the sites as a mid-term solution.
But Mr Gatt said this staffing crisis may be revealing deeper systemic issues.
"Every time a worker's injured, there's a story as to why," he said.
Victoria Police reassures community
Victoria Police said many of the absences at Wodonga and Wangaratta stations were unplanned, such as work cover and sick leave.
Both stations are permanently staffed to levels agreed to with the police union, but the recent wave of absences made temporary deployments necessary.
Victoria Police reassured the community that police officers were still available around the clock to respond to incidents.
Victoria Police said the health and wellbeing of staff was "paramount".
"[We] will continue to support those who have taken unplanned leave … and we'll continue to work with them to get them back to work as soon as they are able to," the spokesperson said.
"In addition to this, we also continue to actively recruit for a small number of vacant positions in the area."
Stress a major issue
Mr Gatt said the region's police shortages were "far more than just COVID absences" and that stress was a major culprit.
"There was a number of members who had long-term mental health injuries like post-traumatic stress injuries," he said.
He said, for many, recovery will take time.
"But some of them result sadly in members being discharged," he said.
Mr Gatt said the association would continue to press Victoria Police to examine any deeper issues leading to this spate of absences in the area.
"You have to pry and say, 'What can we do to make sure we're as resilient to these sorts of challenges as we possibly can be?'" he said.
"That's the work that we'll be asking Victoria Police to do from this point going forward."
